Cant believe nobody mentioned the best player of all time: Maradona LOL
My choice, obviously is personal, but some names are unquestionable...

GK: Lev Yashin (plenty to choose from but the The Black Spider is a Legend)

Defense:
Left side: Maicon
Center: Mathaus and Beckenbaur (many to choose from... Carvalho is the best atm, imo. And don't forget Maldini, Baresi, etc)
Right: Roberto Carlos (nobody is even close to him... B. Gate and Coentrão are probably the best atm but still a long way off Roberto)

Midfielder: (gonna chose just 3...)
Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldinho
(Leaving Cruyff out, but was a close call. Also not forgetting Platini or George Best)

Forward:
Ronaldo (Portuguese), Pele, Messi
(leaving incredible names out, like Ronaldo (Brazilian, 3 times best player of the year), Van Basten (one of the best Striker imo), or Eusebio (who, at the age 18 was already European champion and the star of the team), Di Stefano and Puskas (won 5 champions cup together!!!)).

Seriously guys, i know some are too young to have seen some of these players on the pitch, but search for them. Most of them decided a match by themselves and were the top of the tops. We have excellent players today, but, in my opinion, only C. Ronaldo and Messi are really "Hall of fame - top 20 players of all time" material. Some players are stars... only a few become Legends

The reasons as why many of us will leave out Maradona are pretty plain, he was of questionable temperament & is best remembered for two negatives - hand of God (which even as a Scotsman i'll say is deplorable) & being a junkie. Yes you can look at his skills on the ball, some of his goals and the fact he was as tenacious a blighter as you'd ever want to see, but in terms of him versus some of the names mentioned it's a no brainer.

I know that looks hypocritical when you look at the fact i have Gazza in my squad, but ultimately while Gazza is a flawed genius of drink & wife beating, it's also true to say he wasn't kicked out of the World Cup for being caught doping. There's also the fact that Maradona was heinously one footed, while it's fair to say there was more talent in that one foot than most of us could dream of having it makes him more vulnerable.

When you compare him to those who you have left out of your squad (namely Johan Cruyff) there's evidence of their superior skillset & composition to the squad - Maradona is an excellent footballer, probably one of the best individual talents of his generation, but i feel that he WASN'T a strong team player, that ofcourse could be debated for years but that's my justification for not considering him.

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that". Bill Shankly
"You're playing worse and worse every day and right now you're playing like it's next month".Herb Brooks

The reasons as why many of us will leave out Maradona are pretty plain, he was of questionable temperament & is best remembered for two negatives - hand of God (which even as a Scotsman i'll say is deplorable) & being a junkie. Yes you can look at his skills on the ball, some of his goals and the fact he was as tenacious a blighter as you'd ever want to see, but in terms of him versus some of the names mentioned it's a no brainer.

I know that looks hypocritical when you look at the fact i have Gazza in my squad, but ultimately while Gazza is a flawed genius of drink & wife beating, it's also true to say he wasn't kicked out of the World Cup for being caught doping. There's also the fact that Maradona was heinously one footed, while it's fair to say there was more talent in that one foot than most of us could dream of having it makes him more vulnerable.

When you compare him to those who you have left out of your squad (namely Johan Cruyff) there's evidence of their superior skillset & composition to the squad - Maradona is an excellent footballer, probably one of the best individual talents of his generation, but i feel that he WASN'T a strong team player, that ofcourse could be debated for years but that's my justification for not considering him.

I respect your opinion and its as valid as mine. As i said, was my personal view. However i would like to add something that i usually say, when people complain that C. Ronaldo (for example) is an arrogant SOB: we are talking about professionals; what they do on their own personal life, its their own. Maradona had drug problems, but was, imo, the best football genius of all time. George Best had its own problems too. So did Cruyff and Pele. Zidane did that nasty header on his last match. Truth is, we aren't choosing them for parent roll models At least, that's my take on it, that explains my selection.

But i have to say one thing... when i (and hopefully most people as well) think of Maradona, we don't think of the 2 negatives you mentioned; we think of his goal against Germany, on the world cup, that is generally chosen as the best in History of the competition. Then, people might say "yeah but his drug problems were his doom", but im sure after that sentence comes "damn but what a fantastic player he was!" and finally, the hand of God might be mentioned (honestly, don't really consider that a scandal. Thiery scored one with his Godly hand. So many do. Its sad, but happens). At least, i hope so.

About team players... im pretty sure the team i selected would lose most games LOL It isn't balanced, it is filled with Legends and doesn't have enough "workers". But i would pay so much to see that team lose!

The reasons as why many of us will leave out Maradona are pretty plain, he was of questionable temperament & is best remembered for two negatives - hand of God (which even as a Scotsman i'll say is deplorable) & being a junkie. Yes you can look at his skills on the ball, some of his goals and the fact he was as tenacious a blighter as you'd ever want to see, but in terms of him versus some of the names mentioned it's a no brainer.

That's actually the logic I used to not pick George Best.

I didn't pick Maradona simply because I had Pelé, and thus had my creative genius center forward. I just wanted a goal hungry poaching bastard striker to go with him, enter Van Basten.

and seriously I would choose Neuer over van der Sar, Schmeichel and Casillas any day.

No offence, but how long have you been watching football? Schmeichel on his best day made Neuer's one man display look like the status quo. Go YT some of Schmeichel's saves, not just the stunning double stop/punch over the crossbar, or the two handed catches whilst diving across the goal. Neuer is a very good goalkeeper, but has some distance to go before he can touch Schmeichel, hell before he can even touch Kahn, Seaman or Barthez (when he wasn't being an awful clown the guy was a stunning keeper) but he's young with a promising career.*

*Would be more promising if he decided to not sign for Munich and played outside the BL

Since the World Cup in 1990 at age 8. Schmeichel was a great goalkeeper, no dispute there. I still would choose Neuer because of his potential, he is only 25 and already at this age one of the, if not the, best active gks.
If I had to choose unregarding this "potential", Oliver Kahn would be my pick over Peter Schmeichel, still.
I guess we are both a little biased from our respective leagues (guessing you are from the UK), but I gotta give Kahn credit for the 2002 World Cup, wher Germany did not at all play in the way of a world class team, but got to the final with only one goal against them.

No point mentioning these bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

Schmeichel was one of the best shot stoppers i've seen in the game and proved it time & again over a consistent period of time against the best strikers in world football, nothing to do with who he played for or where he played, he could have played in the J-league and STILL have been the best keeper in the world between 92-02 unquestioned. Besides that fact, if i were to pick on current players for the keeper slot i'd have Iker Casillas in a heartbeat - even over the UK's best keeper right now (Allan McGreggor) it's a no brainer.

Besides that fact, if i were to pick on current players for the keeper slot i'd have Iker Casillas in a heartbeat - even over the UK's best keeper right now (Allan McGreggor) it's a no brainer.

Even over UK's best keeper? "UK's best keeper" is not really a mark of quality these days. mcGreggor is not bad, but you gotta admit that there's lots of space in between Casillas/Neuer and him.
That aside, I'd choose Neuer over Casillas - not merely out of personal preference, but if you look e.g. at the World Cup, Casillas didn't look very good in a few situations. In the end the vastly superior team of the Cup won, and he was a strong GK, but this is complaining on a very high level. I believe Casillas has more fans that would choose him mainly because he plays for the more successful team. (meaning Real, not Spain )
Also, for the Schmeichel-Kahn-argument, I guess it depends who you ask (Britsh or Germans). Schmeichel was a world-class goalkeeper for an incredible amount of time, that must be admitted.

No point mentioning these bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.

Even over UK's best keeper? "UK's best keeper" is not really a mark of quality these days. mcGreggor is not bad, but you gotta admit that there's lots of space in between Casillas/Neuer and him.
That aside, I'd choose Neuer over Casillas - not merely out of personal preference, but if you look e.g. at the World Cup, Casillas didn't look very good in a few situations. In the end the vastly superior team of the Cup won, and he was a strong GK, but this is complaining on a very high level. I believe Casillas has more fans that would choose him mainly because he plays for the more successful team. (meaning Real, not Spain )
Also, for the Schmeichel-Kahn-argument, I guess it depends who you ask (Britsh or Germans). Schmeichel was a world-class goalkeeper for an incredible amount of time, that must be admitted.

McGreggor is a fantastic keeper, strong presence in the box, determined & physically strong - saying he's the best keeper in the UK however IS a mark of quality, strongly believe that in the next 2-3 years he'll be sold to a contending European club. As for Casillas, world cup, european championship, 2 champions league - doesn't matter who you're playing for THAT'S a mark of a quality keeper.

Batiatus: What would you do to hold your wife again, to feel the warmth of her skin, to taste her lips, would you kill?Spartacus: Whoever stood between us.Batiatus: How many men? A hundred, A thousand?Spartacus: I would kill them all.